Harvard's Undergraduate Association Will Again Survey Students on Digital IDs and MBTA Passes, a Third Try at Promises It Has Not Delivered

The Harvard Undergraduate Association will once again ask students whether they want digital Harvard IDs and subsidized MBTA passes, two campaign promises the student government has gone years without delivering, HUA Residential Life Officer Finn R. Berard announced at a Sunday general meeting, according to The Harvard Crimson. The question will appear on the ballot for the fall snap election.

Berard wrote in a statement after the meeting that the surveys are "still wholly preliminary and being used to get a sense of where the undergraduate body stands on these two topics." It is the third time the body has surveyed students about MBTA passes, the Crimson reported.

Last spring, then-Residential Life Officer Isabelle G. Agarwal said she hoped to launch a pilot this school year that would give about 500 students free passes if the data showed enough demand, a condition the MBTA had set before the program could advance. The pilot has not launched, the paper said. Berard wrote that the timeline remains unfinalized, with no projected start date. This time the survey will ask more specific questions about how the passes could be implemented, while Agarwal's poll was broader and focused on ridership and getting approval.

Digital IDs, which would let students swipe into Harvard buildings with their phones, have appeared in HUA campaign platforms since at least 2024, according to the Crimson. Former HUA Co-President Caleb N. Thompson said in an April interview that his administration reached out to ID administrators "many times" and visited their office in person, but that the project never gained enough "traction." The new survey will ask about students' experiences with physical IDs and how the current system might move to a digital or hybrid one, Berard said.

The Residential Life team is also preparing surveys on interest in after-hours access to Annenberg and the Cambridge Queen's Head, the paper reported.

The Sports Team has several initiatives. The HUA is collaborating with the Harvard Cooperative Society to hand out free HUA-branded sports merchandise at home games, and it allocated $1,500 to the project at a separate general meeting last week. The team plans to table at five featured home games this semester across several varsity sports to boost attendance and school spirit. HUA Co-President Zachary Berg said the merchandise "will be given out at home games to incentivize participation and increase the visibility of the HUA."

The team also planned the debut of a turkey mascot at Saturday's Harvard-Princeton football game. Berg said the team had "an abundance of volunteers who are willing to be the turkey," and the Crimson noted that the HUA has tried and failed to gain student satisfaction with a turkey mascot since at least 2016.

A third item concerns disability services. The team is piloting changes to the university's daytime van service, which provides transportation outside the set shuttle routes for students with disabilities. HUA Sports Officer Ella S. McRitchie said the trial aims to pinpoint "where the shortcomings of the van service are." The vans run from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 12:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends, per the Crimson. McRitchie hopes to move the start earlier for injured athletes with morning practices, many of whom cannot use the service otherwise. "That is a big issue for a lot of people, so we're trying to address that," she said. Berg said the Sports Team has been "more active than any year in HUA history."